“No council should have to clean such detritus from a water course. Poor swans.”

LouiseV_wrter added: “Any chance of a Media City clean-up party?”

The Salford Quay rubbish island also made the news in early May, and yet no serious clean-up has been instigated.

The University of Manchester discovered the average figure of microplastics in the near-by River Irwell to have 84,030 pieces per square metre.

Tiny worms were even discovered to have microplastics in them on the bed of Salford Quays, the University team found tiny worms which will be eaten by fish and potentially work their way up the food chain.

Salford Quays has seen a massive regeneration over recent years.

Councillor David Lancaster, lead member for environment and community safety at Salford City Council said:

“We have five rivers flowing into Salford Quays which bring debris and litter with them, particularly after heavy rain such as we had this weekend.

“It’s an on-going problem and we work with land and water owners in the area to manage it. This particular debris will be cleared tomorrow morning.”

The Salford Quays boasts Media City home to the BBC and ITV, The Lowry, the Imperial War Museum North and near-by Manchester United stadium Old Trafford.

Salford City has received £1.3 billion pounds of private sector investment and £425 million of public investment over the past five years according to council figures.

1 COMMENT

There used to be a Water Witch surface dredger working in Salford Quays for many years – a purpose built boat for collecting debris, weed and plastic waste. It was always kept very busy. Now the job is not getting done because Peel don’t want to pay the money. It always comes down to money.